Montreal Jewish and Muslim community leaders calling for peace among rising tensions

Hate crimes and incidents in Montreal are rising – directed towards both the Jewish and Muslim communities since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.

Between Oct. 7 and Nov. 7, police say there were 73 hate crimes and incidents against the Jewish community and 25 against the Muslim community that were reported.

“I believe the numbers are much, much higher than what has been reported honestly, what have been reported so far. Our offices receive, sometimes 10 or 15 cases a day where people are complaining about intimidation, bullying, hate speech, and sometimes hate incidents. But for many considerations, people do not report it and there are many other considerations also why they are not reported but this is another thing. It is very unfortunate,” explained Samer Majzoub, president of the Canadian Muslim Forum.

With the recent rise in hate crimes and incidents, both the Muslim and Jewish communities are calling for peace and calm.

“Most people want peace, but it’s obvious that there are some people who do not want peace who want to import violence here and are attacking Jews, they’re attacking Jewish schools, attacking Jewish synagogues that are attacking Jewish students on campus. And this needs to stop,” said Richard Marceau, vice president of external affairs and general counsel at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA).

“We certainly want peace. We certainly want concord here in Montreal and Quebec in Canada. We are a society with a diverse population and people need to live together in peace, even when there are tensions, even when there are disagreements on some fundamental issues sometimes.”

Marceau went on to say that community leaders are just as responsible as police are for ensuring everyone in the community is safe and that the message of peace is known.

“That is certainly the message that the Jewish community is sending. I’m hoping, that other communities will be as responsible as they should be,” said Marceau.

Majzoub added, “Yes, express yourself, but avoid provocation, avoid those high emotions. I have to send a strong message here. We are all Quebecers, Canadians, and Montrealers. I mean, yes, we have origins, but this does not mean we are reloading, transferring all the tension from every piece, and corner of the world to here to our state so this is not acceptable at all.

“And this is what we call and by the way, there are no two sides in this matter in Montreal, we are all one side with the Muslim Arab origins or Palestinian origins, Jewish origins.”